Site Tip · Speed, phones & usability

What belongs in a website footer

A customer scrolls to the bottom of your site looking for your phone number, and all they find is a copyright line. They give up and try the next business. The footer is small, but it is often the last place people check before they call.

Why the footer matters

The footer is the strip at the very bottom of every page. It repeats on each page of your site, so whatever you put there is always one scroll away.

Visitors treat it like the fine print on a shop door. They expect to find the basics: how to reach you, where you are, and when you are open. If it is empty, they have to hunt through other pages, and many will not bother.

On a phone, this matters even more. People scroll fast, and a tap-to-call number in the footer can save them a trip back to the top.

What to include

Think of the footer as a quick business card. Here is what to put on it:

• Your business name, spelled the same way everywhere
• Your street address, if customers visit you
• Your phone number, set up so a tap on a phone starts the call
• Your hours, including any holiday or seasonal changes
• Your service area, such as the towns or counties you cover
• Links to your main pages, like Services, About, and Contact
• Links to your social profiles, if you actually keep them up
• A copyright line, which is fine as a small extra

How to check your own footer

Open your site on your phone and scroll to the bottom of the home page. Then ask yourself three questions. Can I call this business from here? Do I know where they are and when they are open? Could I get to the main pages without scrolling back up?

If the answer to any of those is no, your footer needs work. Do the same check on an inner page, such as a service page, because footers sometimes differ from page to page.

Common footer mistakes

The biggest mistake is stopping at the copyright line. The next is letting information go stale. If you moved, changed your hours, or got a new phone number, the footer is easy to forget because you rarely look at it.

Another mistake is cramming in too much. A wall of tiny links is as hard to use as an empty footer. Keep it short and tidy, and make sure the text is large enough to read and the links are easy to tap.

If you want a hand tidying this up, Modestius builds and fixes websites for small businesses.

Questions owners ask

Should I put my address in the footer if I work from home?

You do not have to. If you do not want your home address shown, list your service area instead so people still know where you work.

Do I need social media icons in the footer?

Only if you keep those accounts active. Links to a profile that has not been updated in years can make your business look inactive.

Does the footer need to be the same on every page?

Usually yes. A consistent footer means customers can find your contact details no matter which page they land on.